Biden picks Vanderbilt physician to lead National Cancer Institute

As director of the National Cancer Institute, Rathmell will play a central role in carrying out Biden’s “cancer moonshot” initiative, the president’s stated goal to “end cancer as we know it” by better coordinating efforts across the federal government and the private sector, improving access to cancer screening and taking other steps intended to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50 percent by 2047. Biden has also pledged that the moonshot will help improve the patient experience for those touched by the disease.

“Dr. Rathmell is the talented and visionary leader the National Cancer Institute needs to drive us toward ending cancer as we know it,” Biden said in a statement Friday, adding that she “embodies the promise of the Biden Cancer Moonshot.”

The National Cancer Institute “is critical to the success of the cancer moonshot,” said Danielle Carnival, who serves as the White House’s cancer moonshot coordinator. “We don’t have all the tools today to prevent, detect and treat cancer to reach those goals. And NCI is central in driving that progress and that innovation forward.”

Rathmell did not respond to a request for comment. She succeeds Monica M. Bertagnolli, whom the Senate last week confirmed as director of the National Institutes of Health.

In an interview, Bertagnolli said she believes that Rathmell is well-positioned to run the $7.3 billion cancer institute, the largest of the 27 institutes and centers that constitute NIH. As a board member, Rathmell helped develop and roll out the cancer institute’s April 2023 national cancer plan, which detailed eight goals to prevent cancer and save lives, Bertagnolli said. “Now, she will be the one leading its execution as she steps into this job,” the NIH director added.

Several experts noted that the National Cancer Institute has largely escaped the political battles that have ensnared NIH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health agencies following the coronavirus pandemic, as Republicans have alleged that federal health leaders failed to appropriately respond to the virus and have opened multiple investigations into the agencies’ operations.

“We’ve not seen that [politicization] come across in the cancer world yet. It’s just too important,” said Karen E. Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society.

“We must ensure that these breakthroughs actually get to people, and that will take a bipartisan strategy,” she added, calling on Rathmell to focus on improving access to quality cancer care, and to address “intractable cancers,” such as solving the rise in early onset colorectal cancer.

“There’s still a lot of work to do,” said Lynn M. Schuchter, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, who listed challenges facing the cancer institute that include securing appropriate levels of funding, reaching more cancer patients and encouraging younger doctors to pursue becoming physician-scientists like Rathmell.

Beverly S. Mitchell, a hematologist who previously led Stanford’s cancer institute and mentored Rathmell earlier in her career, touted Rathmell’s work to understand the molecular basis of kidney cancer and develop therapeutic approaches to treat it.

The National Cancer Institute “stands for the very best in terms of both fundamental research, which we have to have if we’re going to push knowledge forward, and also applying it to clinical problems,” said Mitchell, adding that Rathmell’s experience working in research labs and at the patient bedside made her an “excellent match” for both parts of the role.

Rathmell was elected last year to the National Academy of Medicine, a nonprofit organization established to provide the government with independent advice on medical policy from top experts, in recognition of her work on kidney cancer and professional mentorship of other physicians.

“She is an amazingly accomplished physician and scientist,” said Carnival, the White House cancer moonshot coordinator, who praised Rathmell for “having one foot in clinical practice and one in genetics and molecular biology.”